At a fountain in the quaint central Place Royale, three young women were looking at the Instagram post of a girl saying: “I was hit in Nantes city centre this afternoon.”

That said, none had any problems beyond the odd sexist remark.

At the Socialist town hall, not everyone is happy about S2N’s activism.

“Nantes is not Chicago, let’s not get carried away,” said Pascal Bolo, deputy mayor in charge of security.

“I tell these S2N bar owners – some of whom are clearly politicised – that if they spend their time shouting from the rooftops that Nantes is a death trap, they’ll harm their town and their business as people will end up saying: ‘If it’s that bad I’ll stay at home’,” he told The Telegraph.

If anything, Nantes, population 319,000 and more than double including wider suburbs, was, he said, a victim of its own success with a rising population and many newcomers from Paris.

“The city is very attractive with an unemployment rate that is two per cent below the national average.

“That said, while long sheltered, the world’s woes have finally caught up with us and we face a new type of delinquency that can take the form of violent theft notably of items like mobile phones, jewellery and necklaces.” 

To improve matters, he said the town hall was increasing the municipal police force by 70 officers, matching an identical pledge from the national police force.

At the busy Commerce tram crossroads, recently trained transport police said they had picked up a couple of pickpockets that day.